Stacie and Paul's visit

The week went by way too fast. They arrived early Sunday morning (2 am) after enduring a 26 hour flight. We tried to keep them busy with all of Singapore's famous sites. (BTW, for those of you who don't know, Stacie is my best friend from Salem. We've know each other over 20 years! Paul is her fiancee.) Here's my rundown of the week (you can read Stacie's in the post above):

Sunday: We took them on the famous Duck Tour. They saw the huge ferris wheel that's being built to beat London's, the Merlion, the Esplanade, the Raffles Hotel and more. After the Tour, we went to Thai Express for a late lunch/early dinner. Delaney had McDonald's...does that really surprise anyone? We then headed to Chinatown to do some exploring. After Chinatown we headed to the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel, which supposedly is the place to say that you've had a Singapore Sling (only because that's where they were created). Delaney had fun there, tossing the peanut shells on the floor (it's the only place in Singapore where you can litter without being fined!) She also enjoyed her virgin sling.

Monday:
Stacie and I wandered around the Hougang area (where we live) so she could see the "local flavor" before picking up Delaney from school. She met Delaney's teacher, Miss Chen. We spent part of the afternoon at the pool. My friend Tracey came over with her two kids, Lauren and Sami. This made Delaney's day! After they left we headed to Little India and had dinner at a famous Indian restaurant, Banana Leaf Apollo. The food was really served on banana leaves and not plates. We saw people eating with their hands, but luckily silverware was provided. I think everyone enjoyed their food. We headed to Mustafa's after dinner, which is a huge store selling everything from clothing to electronics to deodorant. Basically, if you can't find it at Mustafa's, it's not sold in Singapore. Mustafa's was very crowded, especially for a Monday night. I guess it's horrible on the weekends...I found it pretty horrible that night!

Tuesday:
While Paul had the experience of golfing in Asia, Stacie enjoyed about 5 hours at the pool, without sun protection! Delaney and I joined her at around noon. This was a great day for me because Delaney fell asleep at the pool and ended up sleeping for quite a long time...3 1/2 hours to be exact. So I got to enjoy my quiet pool time! We went to the Night Safari that night (which is why I let Delaney sleep so long in the afternoon). Before the Safari, we had dinner downstairs, which I've boycotted, but had to have Stacie and Paul experience what my life was like for the 2 months before I boycotted! The Night Safari was cool, of course. Paul really enjoyed it. We heard a male lion roar, which we thought was being piped in. After heading there, we actually saw him (and heard him) for ourselves. He was slightly upset because he had been denied (if you know what I mean) by another male lion.

Wednesday:
Stacie and I spent the morning at the pool before picking up Delaney. After lunch all of the girls headed downstairs for a mani/pedi treat. Stacie and I had both, and Delaney was soo good, we let her get a Little Princess pedi. She's so proud of her toes (sparkling pink)! After getting our nails done, we both realized that it wouldn't be a smart idea to wash our own hair (we were hitting the town that night) so we stopped at a salon to have our hair washed and blown dry. That night, Jannett (a helper of one of my friends) baby-sat Delaney and the adults headed out. We met our friends Tracey and Sam at Cafe Iguana for dinner and half priced margaritas. After dinner, we ended up at some Cuban bar that didn't want to give us tap water to drink, even though we each had about 2 drinks. They eventually gave in, thank goodness! A fantastic time was had by all.

Thursday:
Delaney must have been worn down, because she had a fever this day. It was pretty consistent, around 102, but, as usual, she was acting fine. Stacie, Delaney, and I headed to Orchard Road (the major shopping district) for some shopping. We had lunch at Pizza Hut, and walked around. Stacie bought some pewter pieced to bring home, and Delaney said she was chilly. We bought her a sweatshirt to warm up. We then got smoothies at Orange Julius and headed to another mall. At this point, Delaney was not doing well, so we headed home. She took a brief nap and when she woke up, her fever was 104! After a dose of Advil and about 1 hour, she was fine. We headed to the Hard Rock for dinner. We all had good food, took good photos and got some souvenirs.

Friday: Derek took the day off and we headed to Sentosa Island. We did the luge, of course. Derek had Delaney talking trash, saying how they were going to dominate. But, I was the one who dominated! We did it 2 times, and I won both! We had pizza at Trapizza (aptly named, as it's right near the trapeze). We saw the dolphin show. Stacie and Paul pet the pink dolphin named Pet after the show, which of course made Delaney want to do it too, so we did it. We got a really great pic from the photographer. We did the southernmost tip of Asia. Dinner that night was at the American bar Brewerkz. We all had burgers and headed over to G-Max Reverse Bungee. We all did it and had a blast. We have DVDs of our ride.

Saturday: Delaney was on TV! It was a show called No Problem...she was at the very beginning saying "I love Yugo". Of course we have no means of recording it. We emailed the station today to get a copy, but they're going to charge some astronomical price for it - 120 dollars! I could have gotten a VCR cheaper. If any of you would like to contribute to this cause, please let us know!!! At any rate, it was really cool to see her on TV. In the afternoon, we went to Bugis Street, which is a street market. Stacie and Paul tried durian (see other post for funny video). We went to a place famous for its chicken rice for dinner.

They left early Sunday morning...at 4! We really miss them. The apartment feels so lonely without them!